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Story:The End of Eternity/E9
IX Arend was completely speechless as he stepped away from the girl in front of him. Natalia Monomus still stood in front of him, but she had completely changed, and the very air around the two seemed to have evaporated into a new solution of tenseness. The girl’s eyes looked at Arend avariciously, as if searching for a weak point to steal and devour his very soul. Behind Natalia Monomus was a Key to Eternity. The Key was a tall, thin man of gaunt build. Unlike any of the Keys Arend had encountered before, this man had a black bodysuit that did not cling to his body tightly. Rather, it hung off him as a robe did, but still covered every part of his skin except his face. Even that was partially covered by long and straight white hair that fell over his face and shoulders. With his sudden appearance and ominous looks, the Key shook Arend to his core. Although he had an innate sense of unease during their entire encounter, Arend absolutely did not expect Natalia to be a Key wielder herself, nor to have made such a visible change. Gone was the timid schoolgirl he thought he knew; standing in front of him was a woman who looked like she would have no qualms with destroying all of the earth. The red moon continued, as ever, to fall towards the earth. “Do not fear. I will kill you, and the apocalypse will occur without any problems. Then, in the new world, we will be together.” Despite what she was saying, Natalia called forth a soothing smile. “Doesn’t that sound lovely?” “Who the hell are you?” Arend panted. He was frantically scanning the opening near the train station for any possible entrances. The only person who would be coming to this part of town, the absolute edge of its borders, would be Klaytaza – and she was his only source of salvation from certain death. “How long have you had a Key? How…” “How is it that your Key never sensed our presence?” Natalia took the words right out of Arend’s mouth, drawing his further surprise. Her smile deepened. “She has. You just don’t remember.” “That’s ridiculous,” Arend spat. “I’d remember such a thing if it happened. You’re lying.” “Arend, why is it exactly that you wish to cause the apocalypse? Why don’t you want humanity to live again?” “Damn you… Don’t you dismiss me!” Despite his protests, Arend realized that conversation would actually benefit him – buying time until Klaytaza’s arrival was, at this point, pretty much his only option to survive. He took another step backwards. “I’m doing all this because there is truly no hope for humanity. We’ve scarred the earth, and killed all other living things, and kill even ourselves. There can be no prosperity, no true peace when humans exist, because all we do is sin. Therefore we must be destroyed, and everything we have ever touched with us!” “Yes… That’s what I thought. So you haven’t changed in all this time, after all…” “All this time? What are you talking about? There’s no way you’ve heard this before… I’ve never told you!” “Oh, you have. You may not remember and it may not have happened recently… But you’ve told me. You’ve told me so many times, Arend… But every time, I don’t gain anything from hearing it. Over and over again, it gets so tiring hearing the same thing in every place, nothing ever changing… Perhaps things will change this time. Perhaps.” For a moment, Natalia’s facial expression became pained and hurt, as if speaking and thinking were causing her physical pain. However, this quickly faded and the girl returned to her confident gaze. Arend’s eyes were widened and confused. “I… I don’t understand what you mean…” Klaytaza still was not here. The moon continued to fall. His chances at survival, while rising with each second that passed, were still abysmally miniscule. No matter how he looked at it, this situation was bad – and it was this realization that made him quickly begin to lose confidence. Like never before, he found that he was becoming incredibly stressed in this situation. Breathing became more difficult, his legs shook, and he began to lose concentration. Arend was extremely frightened. Besides when he met Klaytaza, this was one of the first times he had ever been truly afraid, down to his bones. He had always been a smart man, able to plan, theorize, imagine, escape; but now, faced with something that defied logic, he had no idea what to do. “You don’t have to understand,” Natalia stated cleanly. “Just know that I love you, and I have always loved you. What I felt for you was real, Arend, and I know what you feel for me is real as well. I’ll kill you here, but you’ll return – with me. Isn’t that just great?” “No… No, this can’t end like this. I won’t let it…!” He reached into the back waistband of his pants and retrieved a small knife before brandishing it forward in a shaking grip. “I’ll kill you first… I won’t die!” A small smile crept along Natalia’s face. “So you’re still determined to fight. Trust me, darling, without your Key there is no chance of you defeating me. And she’s occupied… We’ve made sure of that.” A grim thought ran across Arend’s panicked mind. “Wait… So you’re working with that man we fought before? You’ve been on their side the whole time, haven’t you?!” His hand began to shake so hard that he almost dropped the knife. His chance for survival just went down to zero. The girl laughed cutely. “Why, yes, dear! I told you that before… But I suppose you don’t remember, do you? How careless of you. Yes, your Key is involved in a battle as we speak – and is probably defeated. I remember you told her never to stop time unless you commanded it; I wonder how well she will fare against multiple enemies with such a restriction?” Arend stepped backwards and held the knife with both hands in order to keep it in his grip. Now he was not simply filled with fear, but an awful sensation of guilt and pain. He had not only caused the death of Klaytaza – something that was admittedly not horrible, considering she would just regenerate over time – but this also meant that he had caused his own demise. There was no escaping the fact that he was going to die. His vision was not going to be realized. Humanity would continue to exist beneath the will of God and would continue to cripple the earth for all eternity. And it was all his fault. Natalia raised her hand out to the side, and immediately her Key bent over slightly. This movement allowed him to drape one long arm around her neck and the other to hold her hand from behind. With a flash of bright light, the Key manifested a large broadsword that Natalia held onto. Like the sword that Klaytaza wielded, this one was made of a cosmic material and would probably never shatter; unlike it, the blade was shaped like a normal sword and had a lengthy hilt of purple coloration. “How odd that I wound up giving you the object Klaytaza needed to synthesize into her weapon… and how odd that you gave her a different name this time. I suppose the more things stay the same, the more they change…” Natalia’s Key stepped backwards and manifested a sword of his own in the hand opposite his master’s; Natalia raised her hand in front of her. “Goodbye, my love. We will meet again.” “No… No, I won’t accept this…!” Arend raised his knife and ran forward with conviction from nowhere. In a pathetic motion that only managed to highlight his weakness, Arend slashed at Natalia, but his attack was waved off with the Key’s blade as he stepped in front of his master. Despite the nonchalance the man showed, Arend was still swept off his feet and fell backwards from the impact. “Damn…!” “Stop trying,” Natalia said as she stepped forward. Her Key stood where he was, looking at Arend with dead eyes beneath his long hair. “There’s a reason why you absolutely cannot defeat me.” “That reason… It doesn’t exist… Neither does your rebirth… Nor your God!” Arend spat. He had no energy to fuel any further movements; no real motivation to attack or escape. His body had given up to his defeat, even if his mind hadn’t. For things to end so soon… “That’s where you’re wrong,” Natalia said with a smirk. “Faith may be an individual aspect… But I have seen the true properties of this world. Many times over. So take your best shot,” she said as she stepped over Arend’s body. She lowered her blade and looked down at him with the most victorious, scorn-filled look he had ever seen; and yet her eyes still overflowed with adoration. “You will not be able to hurt me.” A shaking Arend raised his blade. “Why… Why are you so confident? Why can’t I hurt you? Why can’t I kill you? Why can’t I achieve my goals?” “Because you love me.” In a moment, Arend felt nothing. No more pain, no more excitement or dread, no more fear, no more disappointment, no more hopes, no more dreams, no more wonders, no more regrets – nothing. His body moved on its own. His arm shook with a spasm, and he tossed the knife forward right into Natalia’s chest. The girl gasped and moved backwards. She dropped her sword and it flashed into light and out of existence. “What? What?” She squawked in exhilarating incredulation, reaching and grabbing at the knife embedded in her torso. A bead of blood fell from her mouth as she continued to back away. Her Key stepped forward with extreme speed, stabbing downward with his large blade right at Arend’s body. Once again, the boy moved with quickness unknown to his consciousness. He rolled away from the attack and kicked the Key in the face, using this momentum to get further away from the two in front of him and stand. Arend looked at his hands with just as much confusion as Natalia showed. Her Key moved to follow up his attack, but a cry from Natalia stopped him. Arend looked at the two with a mind still burdened with fear. “This isn’t possible… You weren’t supposed to hurt me! I was… I killed you… This is how it always went!” Natalia was on the ground now, blood spilling from the knife embedded right in between her breasts. She was breathing heavily and with panicked quickness. “So your Key won’t attack if you’re in mortal danger,” Arend stated with surprising calmness as he started to walk towards Natalia. “Or perhaps it was some limit you imposed on him, as I did?” Now that the tables seemed to have turned, Arend was beginning to return to his normal state of mind, although his heart still raced and his hands still shook. He moved completely off instinct and adrenaline. “You… You love me! I.. This can’t be…” Natalia writhed about on the ground with widened eyes. Now Arend appeared over her body on the ground. He looked at her with his narrowed eyes before stamping a foot on the knife handle, still protruding from her chest. She responded with a scream. “Answer me before you die. I know you can’t refuse me.” He pushed down a bit farther on the knife, and she yelped once again. Still her Key stood completely still, watching the two with dead eyes. Natalia vaguely nodded her head in assent to his command. “First… Why won’t your Key attack me?” “He has two limits I’ve given him… First, he is never to kill you. Second… If I am dying, he is not to interfere.” “That’s ridiculous… Why would you impede him like that?” Unlike Arend’s own limit that preserved Klaytaza’s ability to stop time, there was no practical reason behind what Natalia had said. “Because… I live only for you. Only I get the pleasure of killing you… And if you kill me, I don’t want to have to reject your feelings. But you never did this any other time… You loved me! You always loved me!” She spat up some blood as she wrapped her hands around the knife and began pushing it out of her chest. Arend pushed it back down. “Another thing. What do you mean, any other time? And why did you lie about telling me things before?” “I didn’t lie… I could never lie to you. The reason why you could absolutely never defeat me… was because you love me, and I love you. You just don’t know because I… we… we changed your memories.” “Manipulating my memories…? Is that the power of your Key?” Natalia nodded; Arend looked back to the tall man with surprise. The abilities of the shinra beings never ceased to amaze him. “Right… So you did tell me these things, but you made it so I didn’t remember. How frightening… But that still doesn’t answer my question. How is it that you’ve experienced this before? It doesn’t make any sense. You couldn’t have killed me before.” Despite her agony, Natalia let out a laugh, and began to speak with increasing passion. “This is why you’ve lost to me before… You simply don’t want to believe. The Keys seek to rebuild the earth after a destruction… but what makes you think this is the first time such a phenomenon has been triggered? It is arrogance… Simply arrogance that makes you believe you are alone. In this universe… We are not alone! This is not our first existence! Every time I activate my contract with my Key, I remember all… I remember what God looks like. What death feels like, and how each life feels different from the last. How glorious it feels to be reborn beneath God’s hands, and how fulfilling it is to cause his retribution! But most of all, I remember how much I love you. In the end, you and I always meet – we always embrace – and it is this feeling of love that I miss the most. I was once like you, darling, but I believed in the grace and the shinra beings. Where you rejected, I accepted; where you neglected, I gave in. Humanity will always sin, and we will always destroy, but no matter what we have our love! It is this love that guides us to true happiness, regardless of God’s wills or the ruined world around us! I love you, Arend, and I have always loved you! Every time this world is destroyed and rebuilt… Every time we are reduced to ashes and rise from these ashes… Every time God looks upon our forms anew… My love for you only grows! There is no end and no beginning to my love! The reason why you absolutely cannot win is because you, too, feel this love, and it blinds you from true cosmic power! You and I are alike completely! We are bound together forever, have been bound together, and will continue to be bound together! Eternity continues onward, and we will be reborn again and again, because you always fail. Your darkness always fades to the light of God!” With a decisive stomp, Arend crushed the knife completely into Natalia’s chest, and her ribs cracked with the force. It was a combination of the initial blow, her pierced lungs, and the rib’s fracturing that stabbed her heart and caused the girl to die with a final moan of ecstasy. She looked into her would-be lover’s eyes one last time, smiled, and lost her life. Behind Arend, her Key fell to the ground with a thud, all life evaporating from him instantaneously as his host perished. “That’s where you’re wrong. I killed you because I do not feel love. I only hate. This world will not be reborn… Humanity will not return from the sands of oblivion… And you will be alone for eternity. As will we all.” He looked down at the corpse with hardened eyes. This experience had taught him something, he realized. Fear did indeed exist, and it was in his heart. Doubts and anxiety persisted despite his power and Klaytaza’s influence. And most of all, the Thousand Eternal Ritual was completely real. This was not the first time the earth had been destroyed and reset, but each time, humanity continued to cause the apocalypse. Arend would make sure this was the last time the apocalypse occurred. He knew that. As he stepped off Natalia’s corpse, Klaytaza ran into the clearing. In her hands were the head of the industry worker and his Key to Eternity. KEYS TO ETERNITY REMAINING: 992